1. Technical Field
The subject invention relates to a monoclonal antibody, referred to as K1, and uses thereof.
In particular, the K1 monoclonal antibody can be used in the treatment and diagnosis of several forms of cancer.
2. Background Information
Current therapies for metastatic human cancers, such as radiation or chemotherapy, center on agents that selectively kill rapidly growing cancer cells. Unfortunately, many tumors do not show an unusually fast growth rate compared to important normal tissues, such as bone marrow or the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract. An alternative group of therapeutic approaches targets unique chemical structures on the surface of tumor cells for therapy, most often employing antibodies that bind selectively to these target molecules. One of these therapeutic approaches employs antibodies that are coupled to cell-killing agents, such as plant or bacterial toxins. These antibody-toxin complexes, or immunotoxins, have been shown to be capable of selectively killing tumor cells in model tumor systems in tissue culture and in laboratory animals (Pastan et al., Cell 47:641-648 (1986)).
In spite of many attempts to isolate such tumor-specific antibodies for human therapy, there are still very few antibodies identified that selectively bind only to tumor cells and not to other important normal tissues. Isolation of such tumor-specific antibodies is, therefore, of importance for the application of such immuno-directed therapies.
Monoclonal antibody methodology as originally described by Kohler and Milstein (Nature 156:495-497 (1975) and disclosed in Koprowski et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,124) has allowed the isolation of antibodies in pure form for the construction of therapeutic agents. However, two problems have prevented the application of many previously isolated antibodies. First, many monoclonal antibodies reactive with tumor cells also react with important normal human tissues. Secondly, many of the isolated antibodies bind to surface elements that do not efficiently mediate the entry of toxin conjugates into cells by endocytosis. The present invention relates to a monoclonal antibody, K1, that selectively binds to some human tumors, but not to many important normal tissues. This antibody, when incorporated as the targeting element of an immunotoxin, also has been shown to allow efficient entry of these toxic agents into cells.
An antibody reactive with an antigen shed into the plasma of patients with ovarian cancer has previously been isolated. This antibody, OC125, reactive with this shed antigen, CA125, has been employed in diagnosis of primary and recurrent ovarian cancer (Bast et al., J. Clin. Invest. 68: 1331 (1981)). However, evidence indicates that the K1 monoclonal antibody recognizes an epitope on the cell surface which is entirely different from the one recognized by OC125. Furthermore the antigen which reacts with K1 is not shed into plasma of patients with ovarian cancer. The lack of shedding into plasma makes K1 a much better candidate antibody for immunotherapy, since it would not be neutralized by circulating antigen immediately upon injection into the blood stream.
All U.S. patents and publications referred to herein are hereby incorporated by reference.